Ridiculous Addictions: MAD MEN

I love this show. LOVE it. And it is not purely because of bad boy Don Draper. Sure, a lot of it is about that. Damn. But the plot is great, and I love the development of the characters. I don't want to talk a ton about it because really what I enjoy most are the visuals. But I kind of already said that, didn't I?

Ridiculous Addictions: Dexter

OH MY GOODNESS. Mike and I have flown through all four seasons of Dexter. Thanks to Netflix and some creative digging around, we finished up Season 4 this weekend. I already miss Dexter. I didn't think this was a show I could get into, but I was 100% sucked in by the second or third episode of season 1. Mike and I watched at least 2 episodes each night before going to bed. At the end of the opening sequence, as Dexter walked along the balcony of the apartment building, both of us would wave at the TV and say, "hi, Dexter!"

Now that we have finished watching all of the seasons, there is a hole in our little TV watching universe. And after the season 4 finale, egads - I don't think either Mike or myself has gotten over that yet. In fact, we have discussed it to some extent nearly every night since then.

September can't get here fast enough - we may even have to get Showtime...

Ridiculous Addictions: The Tudors

I can't help it. I'm addicted. Mike and I flew through Season One of Showtime's "The Tudors" in a couple of days. Last night we watched season 2, disk 1 in one sitting. I can't wait to start on disk 2. I've never been a history nut of the period, etc, so honestly I am learning a lot along the way. From friends who do know the era pretty well, they've commented that while there are of course a few liberties in the plot, overall the main story line is pretty accurate. I love the costumes, the political intrigue, and the ridiculous hotness of every character (I doubt everyone was actually so pretty in real life).

The main problem I have with the show is that it's really tough to know what kind of timeline it's moving on. Something that on screen looks to happen over a period of days may actually, in real life, may have taken place over several months or even years. But luckily the show has intrigued me enough to go read about all the people afterwards. I've been reading stuff on the interwebs to keep me up to speed and assist me in actually learning something reather than wasting my time watching TV.

The great thing is, too, that you don't have to wait to see what happens with the story line. We already know :-) It's just fun to see it all acted out by hot people in beautiful costumes!!!!!

Ridiculous Addictions: Twilight

Cast photo from Twilight the movie

I am not a 14 year old girl. But if you looked at my nightstand reading, you would assume I was. Several friends had read Stephenie Myers' Twilight - some liked it, some loathed it and some loved it. I was curious about all the hype, so my good friend Darrah was happy to send me her copy. Let's just say I flew through the book. In three nights of reading, I killed it off. I actually slept in late on Sunday so I wouldn't have to wait too long to go see the first showing at the theatre that day. I was the only person in the theatre (which happened to be without heat) and watched with utter awe the movie based on the book. I have no idea how this happened. Trust me, my eyes are kind of rolling, too.

I love the writing - I like Meyers way of describing environment and character. (Or maybe I thrilled with reading books meant for adolescents after reading academic style writing for all those years of grad school.) While some critics have blasted the flatness of the character development, I think that sometimes it's nice to not get too much info on the people. It's more fun to figure out what's not being said.

After I saw the movie on Sunday, I bought the next book in the series, New Moon. I am almost 200 pages into that and hope to crank it out in the next couple days. Luckily there are two more books in the series already waiting for me. It's kind of fun to have this little reading obsession for a while. The urge to fly through books is one that only happens in spurts for me, so I am going to relish it while it lasts!